Questions on Incubation and young and seperation

[Jamm972]

So my paired canaries Donald and Whitey are working on their second clutch. She already laid 2 eggs. I haven't completely separated the 1st clutch of chicks yet because dad is still feeding mom and the babies.

Question 1: Will Mom teach the younge how to incubate the eggs. I observed Whitey chirping and shoving one of the babies to sit on the nest and the eggs. Is she teaching them what to do or is she just making them do the work for her.

If she is teaching I don't have the heart to force separate them. My main fear is the eggs will fall out of the nest and break.

Question 2: Is it a fact that after the 2nd egg is laid you can separate the dad from the mom and any eggs the mom lays there after are fertile ? or do you keep the mom and dad together until all 4 or 5 eggs are laid.

Question 3: When is a good time to separate the young so the mom can start working and focusing on clutch 2?

Question 4: How do I know the babies are weaned off the parents and ready to be on there own?

That's all my questions for now. Thanks

[Paul's Amazing Birds]

1. No
Incubation is instinctive

2. Yes.
All eggs in a chain are fertilized at the same time.

3. I separate the babies from the mom when I see them eating soft food on their own plus maybe a day or so. If you want to give the mom a break, they can all be transferred to a weaner cage together for a few days with no nest or nest material or dad while you clean her apartment ...or just take everything out of your breeder cage for a while until they start feeding on their own. Plenty of time for another clutch this year. Mom could start pulling baby feathers if no materials are available so best to remove the babies ASAP. Since she already has 2 eggs you might consider moving the feeding dad out to the weaner cage with the babies.

4. They are eating nestling food and drinking water on their own - and starting to eat lettuce and crack seed. Once, I made the mistake of releasing some babies to an open flight to soon and they had a hard time finding food. So now I keep them confined with other juveniles and plenty of food close at hand until I'm sure they they are ready. Some say it takes about 27 days from hatch to full independence.

Paul

[Jamm972]

Thanks Paul, To accommodate I changed the cage perches a bit so the young can reach mom and dad easier to be fed. Now dad is feeding the young 1 by 1 through the bars. He is also feeding mama because she is already incubating the 2 eggs she hatched already. I think she will lay about 5 this time.

[Paul's Amazing Birds]

Need to leave the mom alone now or risk her failure.

I have 14 pairs going at the moment - everything from courting and early nest building to hatching babies. Last count this morning was 28 eggs and 2 babies.

At this time, I try not to disrupt them more than once a day for feeding. If there's a failure I just re-set everything and try again; keeping close notes on productive and non-productive dads and moms.

Paul